Independent participatory media for Iran

Iran’s Minister of Power has announced that a number of dam-construction projects have been halted across the country.

The Mehr News Agency reports that Hamid Chitchian said on Monday September 28 that the building of dams, especially in the area of Lake Urmia, has not had positive outcomes.

Chitchian said that studies from 15 years ago regarding dam building are no longer relevant to the country’s current situation in view of repeated droughts and the high consumption of water.

The drying out of many lakes and wetlands in Iran is being attributed in some part to the unregulated building of dams in the recent decades.

Chitchian said there are dams which were built predicting the collection of 150 million cubic metres of water but have ended up with only 30 million cubic metres.

After the Iran-Iraq War, Iran became one of the countries with the highest number of dam-building projects. It currently has 647 active dams, 146 under construction and 537 dam-building projects being studied for future implementation.